Update: Tenement Lobster(tm) art posted on Zazzle…
And the bib is at first cut stage… where the inner cabal must offer their nominations for sacrifice on the part of the Lemur King – sweat, blood, tears.
****
A while back if you remember I was in a Detroit suburb and managed to accidentally run a red light. Didn’t have current proof of insurance with me and my registration card was way out of date. The officer gave me a warning on the red light, for which I was thankful.
Two days after I got the ticket here is what went in the mail:
- Proof of the insurance that I’ve always had since the day I started driving decades ago.
- Proof of the registration which has always been kept up to date since the day I started driving decades ago.
- The ticket, checked to signify that I did not contest the ticket itself.
- A letter addressed to the magistrate, admitting culpability with a contrite (and sincere – they aren’t the same thing) letter of apology and written explanation.
Care to guess what the ultimate cost of that oversight was? That is, the cost here in the State of Michigan?
Try $700.
That’s right… SEVEN HUNDRED DOLLARS. Roughly.
Here’s the lesson – make a mistake and not only will you get fined till you bleed rectally by the local gov’t but then the state will jump in and add half that amount again to the top of that. It doesn’t matter if you actually had all that stuff covered with the Sec. of State and your insurance company, it doesn’t matter if you admit to an honest error, and it certainly doesn’t matter that you took the time to write a letter signifying that you gave a rat’s ass – they are going after you.
Not to guilt you or anything, but if you want to buy a shirt or mug, this might be the time. 🙂
Yeah, I know, 10% of the folks out there would love to have a job and that ticket. Doesn’t mean I gotta like it.
Lemur King's Folly 
Wow. The wheels of bureaucracy (especially a broke one) grind all human input underneath them.
Good lord, dude!!!
Well, I want a roach tote, too, but have to wait for the tenement-lobster design on shirts and what-nots. Rest assured I shall be getting more stuff at your store 😀
Yikes! 700 bucks huh? They didn’t use any lube or even give you a reach-around.
I have a feeling that the reach-around would have involved rough leather gloves that had been used to pull up poison ivy.
I had an expired proof of insurance and was not ticketed when I was rear-ended. I think it was because I said to the officer that I knew I was up-to-date, that the policy was the same as the one reference on the expired proof of insurance I did have, but I’d be fine if she gave me a ticket since I should have had the current paper with me. She replied she was fine with it; people without insurance didn’t react the way I did so she was not concerned about the issue.
It may have helped that: A. she was a state trooper, not a local officer, B. I had a cat in the car that I tended to every few minutes. When I asked for a moment to check on the cat (hot day), she totally broke out of her “cop mode” and said “Oooh, you have a kitty?” and went to see him with me.
^Ah, the ol’ “I Have a Kitty” gambit. Works every time.
You had a Cop Felinator +4 on you? Well no wonder you got off. There’s no saving throw for something like that.
Lemur King, you must realize now that non-life-endangering traffic violation tickets are simply revenue-generating schemes for local governments.
Take a moment to notice all the “Work Zone – Increased Fine” signs on the highways where there hasn’t been any work going on for months, and likely won’t be. It’s just an excuse to jack up the fines for speeding. ‘Round here, you can see the signs for miles where there is not the first sign of a road work project.
All this serves to do is to create contempt among the citizenry for the governments we live under.
“Take me out into the black, tell ’em I ain’t comin’ back…”
How many people could quote that line and how may would recognize it?
A kindred soul!
Firefly, only the most amazing and under-appreciated piece of work ever!
And yes, I’m awfully full of contempt.
[…] 21, 2010 by Lemur King If you’ve been following here and there you know about my blunder, not having proof of insuran…. (To Detroit Death Comes Astride His Pale […]